JOE HENDERSON Vinyl & CDs

Review: Deeper into Alice Coltrane's catalogue - beyond 'Journey In Satchidananda' or 'Lord Of Lords' - comes this classic bit with cosmic bandleader Pharoah Sanders and saxophonist visionary Joe Henderson. 'Ptah The El Daoud' was initially recorded and released in 1970, and now gets a reissue via Audio Clarity, whose aim with this one is to bring the listener a perfect replica of the original. Made in the basement of her then house in Long Island, New York, this is a light, clarinetting affair; with the track 'Turiya & Ramakrishna' sonically opining Coltrane's Vedantic Hindu views on consciousness, and the seminal 'Blue Nile' nailing sinister serialist moods in their trilling, dark saxophone bits. Of note is that Joe Henderson was recorded on the left channel throughout, while Sanders was on the right; Coltrane noted this decision was intentional, with the two artists' disciplines being so different as to represent the opposing sides of the brain.